The Latest

3-D printers are becoming popular tools, dropping in price and becoming
available to almost everyone. They can be used to build parts that you
can use around the house, but more and more, they also are being
used to create instruments for scientific work. more>>

Data is growing both in volume and importance. As time goes on, the
amount of data that we need to store is growing, and the data itself
is becoming more and more critical for organizations. It is becoming
increasingly important to be able to back up and restore this information
quickly and reliably. Using cloud-based systems spreads out the data
over many servers and locations.
more>>

If you've ever wanted to make an animated film, the learning curve for such
software often is really steep. Thankfully, the Pencil program was released
and although basic, it provided a fairly simple way to create animations on
your computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) with open-source tools.
Unfortunately, the Pencil program was abandoned.
more>>

Originally this article’s purpose was to discuss all the exciting happenings
surrounding the 2015 International CES “Internet of Things” Showcase in Las Vegas,
Nevada. After all, of the 3600+ exhibitors, there were fully 900 exhibitors with IoT
designation at this most-amazing-of-all trade shows, and 170,000 people came through
the turnstiles to see the spectacle!
more>>

David Drysdale wanted to add Capsicum security features to Linux
after he noticed that FreeBSD already had Capsicum support. Capsicum
defines fine-grained security privileges, not unlike filesystem
capabilities. But as David discovered, Capsicum also has some
controversy surrounding it.
more>>

As a father of three girls, I have piles and piles of Disney DVDs and
Blu-rays. I occasionally look at the "Digital Copy" information and roll
my eyes, because it requires some odd Windows DRM software or some
other convoluted watching method that usually isn't possible or even
interesting for me.
more>>

The Security issue of Linux Journal always makes me feel a little
guilty. It turns out that although I have a fairly wide set of technology
skills, I'm not the person you want in charge of securing your network
or your systems. By default, Linux is designed with a moderate amount
of security in mind. For that, I am incredibly grateful. more>>

I've been a fan of Free Software for quite some time, but for the most part I've found my opinions lean in the more pragmatic Bruce Perens Open Source camp. I value free software ideals but also accept other Open Source licenses that may not meet the strict definition of Free Software. I also don't refer to it as GNU/Linux. more>>

As I write these words, the end of the year is approaching, and with
it, so is the time for my annual book roundup. As in past years, in this
article, I describe
books that were new to me during the past 12 months, which means
that I might well mention some new ones or ignore others
that simply didn't come to my attention. more>>

I love Evernote. I pay for a premium membership, and to be honest, I don't
think I even use the premium features. I just love Evernote so much,
I want to support the company. But in the spirit of fair comparison,
I forced myself to try Google Keep.
more>>

The history of computing can be traced by the popular buzzwords of the day. In fact, at some point we should run a contest where everyone submits their 5 all-time favorite computer industry buzzwords. There have been dumb terminals, smart terminals, client server, thin client, peer-to-peer, virtualization, containers, cloud, paas, saas, iaas…the list, and the acronyms stretch to the horizon. more>>

In June 2013, we had the unfortunate luck of a basement flood, caused
by a tripped electrical breaker connected to our sump pump. There are
so many things that can go wrong with a sump pump. You always are on
guard for power outages, blown breakers, sump pump failures, clogged
pipes and all manner of issues that can arise, which ultimately can end
with a flooded basement. more>>

Containers are very tricky to implement. Trying to isolate sets
of resources from each other completely, so that they resemble a discrete
system, and doing it in a secure way, has to be addressed on a feature-by-feature
basis, with many caveats and uncertainties. more>>

We've mentioned Autokey as a great tool for text replacement in
real time on Linux. Thankfully, there's an option for Windows users that
actually is even more powerful than Autokey! AutoHotkey is a similarly
named application that runs strictly under Windows. more>>

I've covered a lot of various pieces of software that are designed
to help you do scientific calculations of one type or another, but I
have neglected a whole class of computational tools that is rarely used
anymore. Before there was the electronic computer, computations had
to be made by hand, so they were error-prone. more>>

As Linux continues to play an ever increasing role in corporate data centers and institutions, ensuring the integrity and protection of these systems must be a priority. With 60% of the world's websites and an increasing share of organization's mission-critical workloads running on Linux, failing to stop malware and other advanced threats on Linux can increasingly impact an organization's reputation and bottom line.

Most companies incorporate backup procedures for critical data, which can be restored quickly if a loss occurs. However, fewer companies are prepared for catastrophic system failures, in which they lose all data, the entire operating system, applications, settings, patches and more, reducing their system(s) to “bare metal.” After all, before data can be restored to a system, there must be a system to restore it to.

In this one hour webinar, learn how to enhance your existing backup strategies for better disaster recovery preparedness using Storix System Backup Administrator (SBAdmin), a highly flexible bare-metal recovery solution for UNIX and Linux systems.